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Five ideas to revive pocket billiards in the Philippines

Pool is dying in the Philippines.

Not so long ago, the sport was buzzing here. We produced world champions like Efren Reyes (1999) and Ronnie Alcano (2006.) Alcano triumphed in a world 9 Ball final against Ralf Souquet in front of a massive hometown crowd at the PICC.

You used to have to wait in line on a Friday night for a chance to play pool at the many poolrooms all over the metropolis. Now many of those poolrooms have shut down.

2013 was the very first year since my commentary career started in 2003 that I did not cover a single mens pool tournament either here or abroad.

The Philippine sports landscape is fickle. Since the early millennium pool has come under attack from other pursuits like running, badminton, poker, football, and volleyball. Poker has especially hurt pool. Every pool shooter from the weekend banger to top pros like Dennis Orcollo have fallen under its spell.

This is sad, because pool is the Philippines' best sport. Period. There is no real argument in my view. We have produced five World Pool-Billiard Association world champs, namely Reyes, Alcano, Orcollo, Francisco Bustamante, and Rubilen Amit. Boxing comes closest, but we never dominated the sweet science like we have pool.

We are still one of the most dominant nations in the sport. If we were as good in tennis as we are in pool, maybe Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Stanislaus Wawrinka, and three other top 10 players would all be Filipino.

It's tragic then to see the sport suffering the way it is now. What to do to reverse the trend? Some suggestions.

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Make billiards a UAAP and NCAA sport. But pool is a slimy, sleazy, yucky sport populated by shady characters, gamblers, and other assorted brigands, you say. It doesn't belong in the upright and squeaky-clean world of collegiate athletics. (Are you sensing some sarcasm here?)

If that is how you see the sport, then it will forever be that way. Why not welcome pool into the fold so it can progress into the honorable and beautiful game it actually is? It will also help young pool talents to become more well-rounded people as they transition to becoming professionals.

And if you think it's impossible to mix a good education with pool skills, then top Pinoy shooters Marlon Manalo and Roberto Gomez would love to have a word with you. They are both distinguished professionals with sheepskin hanging from their walls. Manalo, a JRU grad, is now a Barangay captain in Mandaluyong.

The UAAP features relatively minor sports like fencing, judo, beach volleyball, and table tennis. It's time for the association, and it's rival, the NCAA, to step up and give the country's strongest sport a boost. Enough of pool being treated like a bastard stepson in the the Pinoy sports firmament.

Create a Mosconi Cup-like rivalry with Taiwan. Two years ago, while covering the Guinness Speed Pool tournament in Surabaya, Indonesia for ESPN Star, I had breakfast in the hotel with Simon Chang, a Taiwanese pool official who was helping out with the event.

He told me that the situation in his country mirrored that of our own. Pool was shriveling up, with the number of poolhalls also being reduced from something like 3000 at its peak to just a fraction of that.

If the Philippines and Taiwan were to face off in a team challenge, then it could spark a renewal of the game in both nations. It could be massive, even bigger and better than the Mosconi Cup that pits the USA against Europe. The Philippines and Taiwan are both proud pool nations with terrific players and a contrast of styles and cultures. They met in a team event sometime around 2004 or 2005 in Manila, but the Puyat stable players were not there and the table had ridiculously slow cloth that the Taiwanese could not deal with, so the visitors lost badly.

This event could infuse patriotic feelings in Pinoy sports fans just like Gilas or the Azkals do. And perhaps spur a renaissance.

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Enough with Ten Ball. 10 ball is exactly like 9 Ball except with an extra ball, plus a few rules on call shots. Granted, it's a better test of skill, but it also makes for terrible TV.

That extra ball has a way of clogging up the table and causing interminable safety exchanges that casual viewers simply don't want to see. I much prefer the fast and loose action in 9 Ball. If they want to reduce the luck factor there, make it alternate break and call shot.

Experiment with different games. If you study the history of pool and billiards, you will notice that many different cue sports disciplines have been popular at different times. Before three-cushion billiards and baulkine were popular. Then eight ball and straight pool had their moments in the sun, before nine ball really became the main TV discipline. Then Ten Ball started to get played. Now a new game called Bonus Ball is making inroads in the states.

We should experiment with other forms of pool. That Speed Pool event in 2012 was a hoot. It's a surprisingly great test of skill, and very entertaining. Another discipline that deserves a chance is bank pool, where every shot has to be a bank. In the USA its played with nine balls. I say it should be tried with seven balls, with a player forced to try a shot; no safeties.

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More Mixed Doubles events. It's the best of both worlds, really. The marquee names like Reyes and Bustamante, plus the elegance, grace, beauty, and improving skills of the top female players. Charlie Williams' Dragon Promotions has held two mixed doubles tournaments, one in the Philippines and another in China. Reyes and Amit won both runnings. It would be great to see an event like this in the Philippines with Orcollo, Van Van Corteza, and top Pinays like Iris Ranola, Mary-Ann Basas, Gillian Go, and of course, Amit.

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I'm mostly known as a Football commentator and writer. But pool is my first love. I have been commentating on cue sports far longer than football, and I understand pool much better too. It pains me to see it slipping into irrelevance, when our top shooters have brought so much glory to the nation. I hope some of these suggestions can be carried out, and pool can take its proper place in Philippine sports.

Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.